Jungle Rot

Spending time in a third world country like Viet Nam exposed us to all kinds of things our bodies had never come into contact with before. This story is about one such beast.

 

 

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Jungle Rot

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Sometime after I got to Vietnam on New Years Day of 1970, it started raining and it rained for about six months. It was what they called monsoon season. Although I changed socks every day, my feet stayed wet all day long for about six months. Sometime during that period of time, some of that nasty Vietnamese fungus found my wet feet and decided to chow down between my toes and thus I had a horrific case of Jungle Rot on my feet. I tried everything the army medics had to try to get rid of it, but when I left Viet Nam I still had the jungle rot.

 

Mamasan, polishing and cleaning our extra boots as we worked during the day. Even daily cleaning didn’t keep the fungus off my feet. My Mamasans name was Han Pham. We paid our Mamasans about $10 a week to do our boots and laundry.

 

 

 

The crew at the Artillery Hill Air Section on a good sunny day. That’s me second from the left seated.

 

 

 

When I got home, I tried everything that was available without a prescription and nothing would phase this nasty Vietnamese fungus. I then tried a couple of different local Borger Doctors and they could not touch it. My Dad knew about this foot specialist in Amarillo he recommended, so I made appointment to see him. When I got in to see him, I could see he was an old guy about 60 years old. I told him that I had been trying to get rid of the jungle rot for about a year, so I wanted his absolute best treatment upfront and I didn’t want any pussy footing around. The doctor said he understood.

 

 

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He brought out this purple solution and told me to take my socks and shoes off. The purple stuff looked like Potassium Permanganate that Phillips used as a biocide to kill organic growth in our cooling towers. I ask him what the solution was and indeed it was Potassium Permanganate. I said that stuff absorbs into the skin, are you sure that won’t kill me. He said he was sure, so he painted both my feet purple to above the ankle and told me not to wash my feet for 5 days. The treatment killed all the fungus and it never came back and it didn’t kill me. However, it took six months for the purple color to wear off of my feet. It permanently dyed them purple.

Believe me, purple feet are much better than feet with Jungle Rot. 

 

 

 

Squirrel War II squirrel count is now at 12. Seeing and hearing less from the bush tails everyday.

 

 

Thanks for reading Jungle Rot,

Bill